They’ve spent years embracing their "Golden Misfits" moniker by skirting the salary cap and poaching big-name talent all in the name of winning. But if you didn’t dislike the Vegas Golden Knights before, you probably do now after the team signed Carter Hart to a professional tryout on Thursday.

Hart, who was one of five players acquitted of sexual assault allegations stemming from a 2018 Hockey Canada gala, was cleared by the league to resume his NHL career as early as Dec. 1. The presiding judge found nothing criminal in the allegations, but the NHL called the overall events disturbing.

Of course, so far he’s the only player who has actually signed.

That it was Vegas that reached out when others wouldn’t — Philadelphia, Carolina and Edmonton were just some of the teams that reportedly passed on the former No. 1 goalie — was hardly surprising.

This is, after all, a team that drafted Trevor Connelly in the first round in 2024. He underwent diversity training and volunteer work after posting an image on Snapchat depicting a friend posing in front of building blocks in the shape of a swastika. They also signed Kai Uchacz after he was passed up in the draft for racist actions directed toward a teammate in junior hockey, requiring education and training on anti-racism, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

In other words, they don’t call Vegas “Sin City” for nothing — a label that Golden Knights fans are certainly embracing with the Hart signing.

Golden Knights Season Ticket Holders, Both Mothers Of Daughters, Scoff At Online Vitriol For Signing Of Carter Hart"He was acquitted, so he should be able to live his life without all the noise," Golden Knights season-ticket holder and mother of three daughters, Ronnie H.

"We are a second-chance team," one season-ticket holder told The Hockey News’ W.G. Ramirez. "We started with throwaway players that no one thought would go far, and yet here we are … Everyone hates Vegas, so it’s one more thing to hate, I guess."

Expect more hate, now that Hart has signed.

A petition urging the Golden Knights not to sign Hart received 2,181 signatures (a similar petition may have prevented the Hurricanes from signing him). On social media, the reaction was mostly negative, with @chefbrier tweeting: "feels like a real slap in the face to women." 

Chances are, the Golden Knights knew this was coming. Based on their history, they probably aren't paying too much attention.

Even before this controversial move, Vegas was a team that was unafraid of public perception.

Are Online Petitions Really Preventing NHL Teams From Signing Carter Hart?The earliest NHL teams can sign one of the five players acquitted in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial is Oct. 15. But that hasn’t stopped fans from organizing online petitions and threatening to cancel their season tickets in hopes of pressuring ownership to pass on them.

In three seasons, the Golden Knights placed Mark Stone on LTIR until the playoffs — a move that allowed the team to exceed the salary cap and pick up big-name reinforcements at the trade deadline. While he was injured, the cap-circumventing moves won't happen as much now that the playoffs will have a salary cap system. But in some ways, this signing is another example of Vegas doing whatever it takes to gain an advantage.

"What I love about the Knights is they don’t care about the scandal as much as they care about building a competitive roster," another season-ticket holder told The Hockey News' Ramirez.

Indeed, the decision to sign Hart was based on winning: nothing more, nothing less.

"I'm beyond grateful, excited and honored to be part of the Golden Knights," Hart told reporters. "It's been a long road to get back to this point, getting back to playing the game of hockey, the game that I love. I've been out of the game for a year and a half now. I've learned a lot. I've grown a lot. Just excited to move forward."

Like trading for Mitch Marner in the summer, this should help the Golden Knights win a championship. Say what you want about Hart, who has not played in almost two years. But he makes Vegas better.

How much better will be determined by how quickly he can get back to his earlier form. And whether he can unseat Adin Hill and Akira Schmid as the starting goalie. And, of course, if he can block out the negativity that surrounds his controversial signing or prove that he's grown and learned.

If he can, then Vegas might win another championship.

Until then, they gained another misfit.

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MARYLAND NEIGHTS, Mo. -- When St. Louis Blues practice ended on Friday, there were three guys left on the ice.

And once Dylan Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud left, only one remained. At the opposite end of the ice, by himself, head down, working with the puck.

It was defenseman Logan Mailloux.

Last guy on the ice today: Logan Mailloux. #stlbluespic.twitter.com/gdrwUvy7Zj

— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) October 17, 2025

The 22-year-old will be a healthy scratch on Saturday when the Blues (2-2-0) host the Dallas Stars (3-1-0) on Saturday.

It’s probably the expected outcome after Mailloux, playing in his fourth game with the Blues this season and just his 12th in the NHL, was a minus-4 playing 15:49 on Wednesday in an 8-3 loss against the Chicago Blackhawks. He is a minus-7 in four games this season with no points.

Matthew Kessel will replace Mailloux and play alongside Tyler Tucker, but the Blues, who were hoping Mailloux would be shot out of a cannon and be an immediate impact, has shown signs of good play, but it’s obvious that the long-term vision has come into focus again and something that has never been cast aside.

“When you think about players’ development in the league, it’s always goaltenders take the longest,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “That’s why they play to the oldest average age. Defensemen are second. Forwards finish the youngest, especially in the modern era. Forwards usually at the age of 32, they’re starting to decline. For a defenseman, it’s more like 34-35 and goaltenders, it’s more like 37. It’s just the way it seems like it’s been.

“And that being said, have you guys heard of Fabian Brunnstrom? A 2008 free agent signing. Everybody wanted to sign him. First game in the league, scored three goals. Everybody was like, ‘Here’s the new Jari Kurri or Mats Sundin in the National Hockey League.’ You guys haven’t heard of him. There’s a reason, right? And then there’s other guys … this is a hard league to break into, especially at that position. We’re thinking the long game with Logan Mailloux. Sometimes you need a reset. You go up in the press box, watch a game, you see how much time you have, you see how to take away time and we’re going to work with him. We have a plan and when he gets back in the lineup, I don’t ever expect him to come back out.”

Fans have already voiced displeasure at the trade that brought Mailloux from the Montreal Canadiens for Zack Bolduc, who scored in his first three games with the Canadiens and had an assist, becoming the seventh Canadiens player in their history to score in his first three games with the club.

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That’s why not only will the club make sure to nurture Mailloux on the ice but off it as well.

“As a coach, you have to look after everybody mentally. It’s part of the job,” Montgomery said. “To be able to support these guys, sometimes you’ve got to kick them in the rear end. You need to build them up so that they understand that you believe in them, but ice time, I love the line from Bobby Knight: there’s nothing that teaches people better than ass meet bench, bench meet ass. That’s the only tool a coach has always had to get a player’s attention when they’re not playing to the team standard, and that’s not the case with Logan Mailloux, but it’s often been the case at times in the past. Not with him, but with other players.”

The Blues won’t allow the outside noise to disrupt their overall vision for Mailloux, who has the backing of his teammates.

“He’s going to be a great player,” Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. “You watch him skate, you watch him shoot, he’s steady, he’s strong back there. There’s no doubt about that. I’m looking forward to watching that guy grow and become a dominant force back there. I have full faith in him. He’s a great player. We’re just all looking forward to watching him grow, but at the end of the day, it’s a group effort no matter what. That’s the bottom line. We’re all wearing the Bluenote together.

“It’s got to be difficult obviously going to a new team and you want to play well and things like that. He’s a great player. I have full confidence in him. I’m just looking forward to watching him continue to grow and just keep building.”

Captain Brayden Schenn said, “He's played 11 games or 12 games,” Schenn said. “There's a lot of pressure on him coming from outside. I believe in Logan Mailloux, we believe in Logan Mailloux, and the organization does. I think people are always going to look at this one-for-one. It's not a one-for-one. It's a long-term plan, and he's a great player.

“Like I said, he's played four games for us and it's a new organization ... new coaching, new system, there's a lot of stuff that goes into it. Honestly, I think he's getting ... there's no reason to put pressure on the kid. He's young, and he's getting his feet wet, and he's going to be a good player for a long time, and I firmly believe that.”

There will come a time, whether it be the next game on Tuesday against the Los Angeles Kings or even further along the line when Mailloux returns and has that game where he figures out he belongs in the league. The Blues know it will come tomorrow, the day after, next month, maybe next year, whenever it happens, it will come.

“Everybody’s different when they have that ah-hah moment,” Montgomery said. “His ah-hah moment hasn’t happened yet, and there’s always a moment for every player where it’s like, ‘not only can I survive in this league, but I can thrive in this league,’ and it’s going to happen for him. He’s too talented, he’s too good. When I meet with him, I always leave excited about how future’s going to be.”

Blues Making Changes Throughout Lineup For Game Saturday Against StarsBlues coach Jim Montgomery puts forward lines through blender at practice on Friday.

Kessel To Debut For Blues Saturday Against StarsDefenseman has been a healthy scratch for four games, will replace Mailloux

Before its game against the Washington Capitals tonight, the Minnesota Wild announced a trade. The Wild have acquired former top prospect Oskar Olausson.

The San Jose Sharks got defenseman Kyle Masters in return for Olausson.

Masters, 22, was the Wild's 118th pick from the 2021 NHL Draft and had spent the last two years in the Wild's organization. He had one goal and five assists in 35 AHL games the last two years for the Iowa Wild.

Olausson, 22, was the Colorado Avalanche's 28th overall pick from the 2021 NHL Draft. He was once considered a top prospect for the Avalanche but only skated in four NHL games in his career since.

Last season the 6-foot-1 forward recorded 11 goals and 26 points in 62 games for the Colorado Eagles. He has 33 goals, 33 assists and 66 points in 163 career AHL games across four seasons.

It is a pretty low risk move for the Wild. If Olausson can get back to what he was projected to become, that would be great for Minnesota. If not, it's still good to have some young depth in the American League.

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With the New York Rangers dealing with a couple of injuries on the back end, the team called up Scott Morrow from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League. 

While his services on the ice haven’t been needed just yet, Morrow is back in an NHL environment, which he’s ecstatic about. 

“It’s always good to stay ready,” Morrow said. “I'm happy to be back, and it's fun being out here with these guys.”

The Rangers acquired Morrow from the Carolina Hurricanes over the summer in a sign-and-trade deal that included K’Andre Miller.

During training camp, Morrow was given an opportunity to thrive, as he was put in a role quarterbacking the power play and had the opportunity to suit up in multiple preseason games. 

The 22-year-old showed some impressive flashes over the course of training camp, but he was ultimately sent down to the AHL. 

When addressing his training-camp performance, Morrow emphasized that he was pleased with some aspects of his game. 

However, he knows there’s still a different gear he could hit. 

“My performance I would say was pretty solid. I think I have a higher level of offense I could bring maybe than what I showed in training camp, although I thought I did a solid job on a power play when I got those opportunities,” Morrow said. 

“I think I could push myself to create a little bit more. As a younger defenseman in the NHL, your first responsibility is to defend, so that's what's going to get me here, so I need to focus on that just as much, if not more. I would say I had a pretty solid training camp. I think I showed well and showed my skill set, but I have a higher level to reach.”

Mike Sullivan and the Rangers’ coaching staff left Morrow with a positive message upon sending him down to Hartford, as they made it clear that he wasn’t far off from making the opening-night roster.

The Rangers' Scoring Woes Are Beginning To Be Hard To Ignore The theme of the 2025-26 season for the New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers/">Rangers</a> thus far has been their inability to score, despite generating numerous scoring opportunities.&nbsp;

“As far as feedback from the coaching staff, they just said I'm close and just got to keep working on a couple little things, being more physical, and just try and knock the door down and force them to play me,” Morrow said.

This call-up for Morrow is an opportunity regardless of whether he plays in a game or not. It’s important for him to show the coaching staff his level of professionalism and maturity. 

Everything happens for a reason, and now it’s on Morrow to seize this opportunity, whatever may come of it.

“You always have something to prove,” Morrow said. “Even guys who are making a lot of money, who played 500,000 games in the NHL. They always have something to prove, and your job is on the line every day, so I would say my mentality hasn't changed.”

Curtis Douglas started his NHL career with a bang last week, dropping the gloves nine seconds into his first shift. 

His opponent was no lightweight, the Ottawa Senators' Kurtis MacDermid, a veteran and known bruiser with over 40 fights in his NHL career.

The Tampa Bay Lightning claimed Douglas, an Oakville, Ont., native, off waivers from the Utah Mammoth on Oct. 6. He is one of only three 6-foot-9 players to ever play in the NHL.

His message was clear from the very first puck drop: he's not looking to blend in.

The fight was brief but a testament to what is to come. In an era where the enforcer role has seemed to cycle out of most lineups, Douglas' debut seemed like a throwback to what hockey used to be. But what does his debut say about the modern NHL?

Curtis Douglas in his FIRST NHL SHIFT EVER dropped the gloves with Kurtis MacDermid.🥊🥊🥊 pic.twitter.com/GI0ujJl5xr

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 9, 2025

Before reaching The Show, Douglas carved out a steady AHL career using his size and presence on the ice. Over 261 games in the AHL, he spent most of his time with the Tucson Roadrunners, skating in 170 games along with brief stints in Toronto and Belleville. Last season, Douglas played in 63 games and recorded 10 goals, 23 points and 117 penalty minutes.

But Douglas’ penalty minutes only tell part of the story. He recorded nine fights last season and 32 in his AHL career, according to hockeyfights.com. Those numbers place him firmly among the league’s more active enforcers.

And Douglas is not alone in this approach.

In the 2023-24 season, New York Rangers left winger Matt Rempe similarly burst onto the scene, dropping the gloves nine times in his first two NHL seasons, including a memorable one during his NHL debut against Matt Martin in a 6-5 overtime win at MetLife Stadium in February 2024.

In three NHL games for Douglas so far, he has six hits, two shots and seven penalty minutes while averaging 5:39 of ice time. Rempe, meanwhile, has 22 hits, six shots and a goal in six games this season with 11:29 of ice time per game.

For years, fighting seemed to be fizzling out of the NHL. In the 2009-10 regular season, there were 714 fights in 1,230 games, according to hockeyfights.com. That comes out to about 0.58 fights per game.

By the 2019-20 season, cut short due to COVID-19, that number had fallen to 195 fights in 1,082 games for a rate of 0.18 fisticuffs per contest, a roughly 69-percent decrease from a decade prior.

But it seems the tide could be shifting. The 2024-25 season saw 297 fights in 1,312 games for 0.23 fights per match, a roughly 26 percent increase from five years earlier.

The rise suggests that the role of the enforcer may be evolving, not dying – and Curtis Douglas could be part of its next chapter.

Jacob Carabetta is an intern at The Hockey News.

Pittsburgh Penguins' rookies have certainly been making their mark in the earlygoing of the 2025-26 season.

And one of them made a statement with his first goal in the NHL.

On Thursday, the Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2, and the game-winning goal came courtesy of a third-period shorthanded tally by rookie forward Filip Hallander, which doubled as his first NHL goal.

Hallander and Rickard Rakell broke into the attacking zone on a two-on-one, and Rakell made a nice play to get the puck to the net, where Hallander was waiting. The 25-year-old Swedish forward took a few hacks and finally got the puck past Kings' goalie Anton Forsberg.

"Raks got a good shot away," Hallander said. "I almost had an open net on the rebound. Missed that, then I just jammed the puck with all I could. Happy to see it go in."

FILIP 👏 HALLANDER 👏 pic.twitter.com/gfcg1R8hVJ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 17, 2025

The game didn't start off in ideal fashion for the Penguins, who got buried and hemmed in early. Warren Foegele scored just 4:24 into the first period off of a juicy rebound by goaltender Arturs Silovs, and he got to the net front a bit too easily. Kevin Fiala put the Kings on the board less than five minutes later after an offensive zone turnover by Anthony Mantha and a pretty passing play from Quinton Byfield to make it 2-0.

The second period started much the same, with the Kings taking it to the Penguins and caving them in their own zone quite frequently. Then, Byfield took a hooking penalty near the six-minute mark of the middle frame, and the Penguins took advantage.

Evgeni Malkin - who had six assists and a team-high six points to start the season - walked the puck from the left point to the bottom of the left circle, searching for passing options and finding none. He found the five-hole on Forsberg and put it through, cutting the Kings' lead in half. The goal also tied him for 41st on the NHL's all-time list in goals and 29th on the all-time list in scoring.

MALKAMANIA IN LOS ANGELES! 💪 pic.twitter.com/5OETSYoS7e

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 17, 2025

Then, just 41 seconds later, Connor Dewar tied the game at 2-2 after a nice play on the way to the net by Noel Acciari to get the puck to Dewar, who beat Forsberg short-side.

Sidney Crosby took his second penalty of the game five minutes into the third, and the Penguins went on the penalty kill. That's when Rakell gained positioning to create a two-on-one and get the puck to the net. His shot hit the cross-bar, and Rakell backhanded the rebound back toward Forsberg, which was when Hallander stuffed it in. 

Then, with 31 seconds left in regulation and the Kings pushing pretty hard, Crosby buried it in the empty-net from center ice to put the game away. 

Silovs was shaky early on, but he settled in and stopped 30 of 32 shots, many of which were tough saves later on in the game.

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